Nottingham University Academy of Science and Technology
Admissions Policy
Responsible officer:
Principal
Date approved:
18/05/2015
Approved by:
NUAST Board of Directors
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NOTTINGHAM UNIVERSITY ACADEMY OF
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Admission Arrangements
1.0
Admission number
1.1
The Nottingham University Academy of Science and Technology (the
Academy) has the following agreed admission number for the year
2016/2017 and, subject to any changes approved or required by the
Secretary of State for Education, for subsequent years.
1.2
IFrom 2016/17Year10 group size will be 180. The Academy will
ultimately have capacity for 360 14-16 year old students. In 2016/17
the total Year 12 group size will be 220 and the Academy will ultimately
have capacity for 440 16-19 year old students. The Year 12 admissions
number for eligible external applicants is 160 in 2016, 100 in 2017 and
40 thereafter:
Places/Year group
Year 10 (external)
Year 11 (internal)
2015 2016 2017 2018
120
180
180
180
100
Year 12 (internal)
2.0
120
180
180
100
120
180
Year 12 (external)
150
160
100
40
Year 13 (internal)
90
150
220
220
Total
460
710
800
800
1.3
Students, who have an Education Health Care Plan, where the
Academy is named in the child’s Plan, will be admitted. In this event,
the number of places that remain available for allocation will be
reduced.
1.4
Arrangements for applications for places within the Academy’s 16-19
cohorts from 2015 will be made directly to the Academy by 31 August
each year. Applications for Year 10 cohorts from 2014 will participate
in, and follow the timetable for, Nottingham City’s co-ordinated
admissions procedure.
1.5
Requests for admission outside of chronological age can be made
Year 10 admission arrangements
2.1
With the intention of recruiting a comprehensive and balanced intake of
students across the ability range in each year of entry in line with its
declared vision and ethos, and to ensure that it serves a sub-regional
catchment, the Academy will operate a fair banding system for
applicants for each intake year. Priority will be given on a fair banding
basis for all applicants living within the whole catchment.
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2.2
3.0
Oversubscription criteria will take account of target catchment intakes.
Applicants will all be assessed using nationally recognised and
independently verified reading tests and written mathematics tests to
determine their ability band. The number of students taken from each
of the nine ability bands (stanines) will be determined in line with a
nationally referenced spread of ability. Testing sessions will be held
before 1 December each year to enable applicants to be informed of
the outcome of their application on 1 March each year. Late
applicants, applying on or after 1 November, and in-year applicants,
will be tested as soon as possible after receipt of their application. If
the Academy is undersubscribed all Year 10 applicants will be
admitted.
2.3
The Academy may refuse admission to students (other than in the
normal year of entry) in the specific and limited circumstances
described in paragraphs 3.8 and 3.12 of the School Admissions Code.
In all the circumstances described in this paragraph and governed by
the Nottingham City Fair Access Protocol (or subsequently named
process for securing places for vulnerable children), however, the
Secretary of State for Education may direct the Academy to admit such
a student and that direction shall be binding on the Academy.
(See Nottingham City In-Year Co-ordinated Scheme at:
www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/schooladmissions).
2.4
Applications from siblings, sets of twins or other children from multiple
births will be treated as individual applicants. This may result in one
child being allocated a place and another not.
Procedures where the Academy is oversubscribed
3.1
Where the number of admissions applications to Year 10 is greater
than the published admissions number, applications will be considered
- within the nine ability bands described in paragraphs 2.1 and 2.3 against the following criteria and prioritised in the order in which they
are set out below:
a) Places will first be allocated to a ‘looked after child’ or a child who
was previously looked after but immediately after being looked
after became subject to an adoption, child arrangements, or
special guardianship order. A looked after child is a child who is (a)
in the care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with
accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social
services functions in accordance with section 22(1) of the Children
Act 1989 at the time of making an application to a school. An
adoption order is an order under the Adoption Act 1976 (see
section 12 adoption orders) and children who were adopted under
the Adoption and Children’s Action 2002 (see section 46 adoption
orders). A ‘child arrangements order’ is an order settling the
arrangements to be made as to the person with whom the child is
to live under section 8 of the Children Act 1989 as amended by
section 14 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Section 14A of
the Children Act 1989 defines a ‘special guardianship order’ as an
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order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special
guardian (or special guardians).
b) Children residing within the three target catchment areas as
follows:
• 30% of the remaining places to applicants living within the inner
catchment
• 35% living within the middle catchment
• 35% living within the outer catchment.
c) Where there are more applicants within the target catchment areas
than there are places available, places will be determined by
independently verified random allocation. The process of random
allocation will be undertaken by an independent panel appointed by
the Academy.
d) Within each band, where there are insufficient applicants in the
target catchment area(s) to meet the percentage quotas above, the
unfilled places will then be shared equally between the
oversubscribed area(s) in that band.
e) To ensure a fair spread of ability, if any places within a band remain
unfilled, they will be added equally to the two neighbouring bands
(or the next band in the case of stanines 1 and 9). If the number of
places cannot be shared equally, then the remaining additional
places will be randomly allocated to one of the two neighbouring
bands.
f) Children residing outside the three target catchment areas.
3.2
The catchment target intake percentages are based on the size of
populations living within the boundaries of specific postcodes in each
area catchment (see below).
Target
catchment
intakes
Inner
30%
Centres of population
(not inclusive)
Ilkeston
Heanor
Nottingham
West Bridgford
Beeston
Hucknall
Long Eaton
Postcodes
(inclusive)
DE7, DE75
NG1, NG2, NG3, NG4, NG5, NG6,
NG7, NG8, NG9, NG10, NG11,
NG12, NG14, NG15, NG16,
NG70, NG80, NG90
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Middle
35%
Outer
35%
Derby
Belper
Ripley
Alfreton
Loughborough
Melton Mowbray
Bingham
Mansfield
Southwell
Matlock
Ashbourne
Burton-upon-Trent
Leicester
Ashby de la Zouch
Coalville
Newark
Grantham
Chesterfield
Worksop
DE1, DE3, DE5, DE21, DE22,
DE23, DE24, DE55, DE56, DE65,
DE72, DE73, DE74, DE99
LE11, LE12, LE13, LE14
NG13, NG17, NG18, NG19,
NG20, NG21, NG25
DE4, DE6, DE11, DE12, DE13,
DE14, DE15
LE1, LE2, LE3, LE4, LE5, LE6,
LE7, LE21, LE41, LE55, LE65,
LE67, LE87, LE95
NG22, NG23, NG24, NG31, NG32
S40, S41, S42, S43, S44, S45,
S49, S80
NUAST Catchment Map and Post Code Areas
Area Catchment
Key:
Inner
Middle
3.3
Tie-Break
Outer
In deciding which applicant is prioritised where two or more
applications cannot be separated, independently verified random
allocation will be used to select students from any oversubscribed band
and/or target catchment area.
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3.4
4.0
5.0
Where a place becomes available in-year, this will be allocated using
the same oversubscription criteria as described above. Where more
than one applicant is thus eligible, the offer of places will be determined
by independently verified random allocation.
Operation of waiting lists
4.1
Where in any year the Academy receives more applications for places
than there are places available, a waiting list will operate. This will be
administered and maintained by the Academy and it will be open to
any parent to ask for his or her child’s name to be placed on the waiting
list, following an unsuccessful application and appeal for the Academy.
4.2
Where places become vacant they will be allocated to children whose
order of priority on the waiting list will be determined solely in
accordance with the criteria set out in paragraphs 1.0 to 3.4 of this
document. The waiting list will be maintained by the Academy to the
end of December each year.
Arrangements for appeals panels
5.1
Any applicant not offered a place at the Academy has the right to
appeal. Appeals are heard by an Independent Appeal Panel in
accordance with the School Admissions Appeals Code.
5.2
Appeals should be submitted within 20 Academy term-time days of the
notification of a place not being offered at the Academy. The
notification will indicate the reasons for refusal of a place and of the
right of appeal.
5.3
Anyone wishing to appeal against an admission decision by the
Academy should send a completed appeal form to the Clerk to the
Appeal Panel at the address given on the appeal form, a copy of which
is sent with the admission decision. Other documents may be
submitted in support of an appeal and should be lodged with the Clerk
to the Independent Appeal Panel not less than 7 working days before
the appeal hearing.
5.4
Appellants will be given 14 days’ notice of the appeal hearing, unless
they agree to a shorter period of notice. At least 7 days before the
hearing the Academy will provide the parent/carer with a written
statement detailing the reasons why it has not been possible to allow
the child to attend the Academy. The Independent Appeal Panel will
have the discretion to refuse to admit late evidence.
5.5
The Clerk to the Independent Appeal Panel will, if possible, inform
appellants of the Panel’s decision on the day of the hearing.
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6.0
Post-16 admission arrangements
6.1
It is the intention of the Academy that all the Academy students who
wish to continue their education Post-16 should be able to do so, and it
is expected that existing Academy students will fill the majority of the
available Post-16 places from 2017 onwards. The entry requirements
for specific courses are the same for both internal and external
applicants.
6.2
The Post-16 Admissions Number, which will determine the number of
places available for students from other schools, is 160 in 2016/17
(see paragraph 1.2 for subsequent years). The Academy may well be
in a position to offer more than the stated number of external places to
students from other schools should not all of the students transferring
from Year 11 to Year 12 wish or be able to do so. The overall capacity
of the Academy for Year 12 students from 2016/17 is 260.
6.3
The Academy’s minimum entry requirements for those applying for
Level 3 and Level 4 courses at Post-16 are as follows:
6.3.1 Entry to all level 3 courses will have at least a Grade C in GCSE
English, GCSE Mathematics and three other GCSE or
equivalent qualifications.
6.3.2 Entry to A Level Mathematics courses will require as a minimum
at least the GCSE Mathematics or GCSE Statistics to be a
Grade B pass.
6.3.3 Entry to A Level Science courses will require as a minimum for
TWO GCSE Science subjects to be at least a Grade B pass.
6.3.4 Level 4 applicants will require at least 3 A*-E passes (or 2 A*-C
passes) or equivalent, at Level 3.
6.4
If the number of external Post-16 applicants meeting the entry
requirements exceeds the admission number in any year, places will
be offered first to applicants who are, or have been, in public care (see
paragraph 3.1(a) above). Places will next be offered to applicants
using the same target catchment area oversubscription criteria detailed
above in paragraph 3.1(b). Banding will not be used for Post-16
applications. If any catchment(s) remain over-subscribed the offer of
remaining places will be determined by independently verified random
allocation.
6.5
There will be a right of appeal to the Independent Appeals Panel for
unsuccessful applicants.
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REVIEW PROCESS
This policy will be reviewed annually by the Principal or when due to changes in
guidance and approved by the NUAST Board of Directors.
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